This invention relates to the production of breaded vegetable shapes. More particularly, it relates to breaded onion rings, although the invention has advantageous application to other shapes such as mushroom discs and other types of vegetable rings such as those of green pepper.
In the context of onion rings, a problem exists relative to the tendency of the batter coating on the rings to clot or clump when the rings start to thaw. It will be appreciated that such rings are marketed in packages where the quick frozen rings are in contact with each other. As thawing begins, the batter coating on adjacent rings may fuse or clot together so that, upon separation, the rings are exposed. Thereafter, when the user deep fries the ring, an unsightly, and perhaps unsavory, product results. It is therefore an important object of this invention to provide a method which avoids this drawback by providing a breaded coating which remains intact and integral throughout the thawing and frying by the ultimate user. This is achieved according to the invention by a rapid, short heating of the coated vegetable ring prior to the instant quick freeze.
In those instances where the vegetable ring is made directly from slices of onion, green pepper, etc., a further difficulty has been encountered in providing an adherent batter-breading coating, particularly one that resists detachment during the rapid, short heating step employed just prior to freezing. For example, when the normal batter-breading coating on a sliced onion ring (as compared to an onion ring produced by molding or extrusion from a slurry) is subjected to flash frying (for the rapid short heating), the normal batter-breading coating tends to explode and leave the surface of the vegetable ring. It will be appreciated that vegetable rings made from slicing vegetables have a relatively smooth and "sealed" surface which makes good adherence of the coating difficult. Thus, a product results which is imperfectly coated.
It is another important object of this invention to provide a method of coating and treatment which avoids difficulty. According to the invention, this is achieved by providing the coating in two layers. The initially applied or interior layer is of a relatively viscous batter, followed by application of a relatively fine mesh breading. Thereafter we provide the outer layer of less viscous batter and coarser mesh breading.
Other objects and advantages of the invention may be seen in the details set forth in the ensuing specification.